Somebody That I Used to Know
by Emo Owl
Summary: Pre-massacre. ItachiXOC She was a cruel tool of war and he was a kind, peaceful man; a partnership between the two was as unlikely as the moon falling out of the sky, but fate had other plans. When the they are forced to work together as the threat of war looms, they find they have more in common than they every thought possible.


"Raven, take point." A quiet voice broke the stillness of the predawn black.

Without breaking stride, a tall brunette woman leapt from her place in their four man formation and smoothly switched with her captain. His weasel mask grinned wickedly as a glint of moonlight caught the white porcelain as he passed her in the air.

A bitter chill carried on the strong north wind bit at her exposed shoulders. She bristled uncomfortably at the sensation; she'd never been fond of the cold.

They had reached the northern border. Based on their intelligence, they should have reached enemy shinobi by now, but things had been remarkably quiet. She could feel the uneasiness spreading through the eldest members of the team: a burly man in a monkey mask, and a spiky haired blonde of average build in a dog mask. It was understandable, especially considering the fact that this was the team's first mission together. It was still annoying her.

The wind shifted slightly; a movement that made the branches wave and bend around them. Its icy blast hit her exposed skin full force. At the same moment, she also felt the presence of a new chakra.

Her hand shot up in the signal. A second and third chakra signal soon joined the first. At the speed they were travelling, they were going to come up on them quickly. When they were almost on top of them, she held up three fingers signaling the number and then extended her hand forward in their direction.

The team moved simultaneously without further prompting. She slowed her speed and let Weasel pass her, as Dog and Monkey spread out to the sides. Weasel dropped down into the clearing first, landing directly in front of a trio of ninjas. They clumsily threw a few kunai that were smoothly brushed aside. They didn't' have time for another assault, because Dog took them out after hitting them from the flank. They were so distracted with Weasel that they forgot to protect their side.

"They couldn't have been more than chunnin." Dog commented as he looked over the dead shinobi.

"These are the missing documents." Monkey stated as he flipped through a stack of papers that they had been leaning over.

"The fourth member must be a Jonin squad leader." Raven speculated as she paced the clearing.

Something wasn't right. The fourth chakra signature wasn't anywhere to be found. Their report had said that there were four shinobi responsible for the theft, and she was willing to believe that; there was no way these three acted alone.

The three members of her team watched her patiently as she paced. Their white porcelain masks grinned creepily at her as she moved, but she ignored it. She finally stopped in the middle of the clearing and waited, listened, and tried to feel any change in the atmosphere. After a full ten minutes without movement from her or her team, she finally felt a change.

She moved her hand up in the signal, and without waiting for the rest of her team, took off in the direction of the chakra signature. Weasel took off after her, leaving the other two behind to search the bodies. The chakra signature was faint and moving quickly, but it was definitely there. Before long, Weasel accelerated slightly and she knew he could sense it too.

"Wire." Weasel muttered after a few minutes.

"Exploding tags." Raven added as she pointed to a white tag on the trunk of a tree just ahead of them.

"These are sloppy, but they were pre-placed; there could be others further in." Weasel commented quietly.

"He's slowing." Raven replied in the same low tone. Weasel nodded in acknowledgement as he reached into his kunai pouch. Following his lead, Raven drew a couple of kunai.

Up ahead of them, the moon cut through the branches overhead and pooled on the forest floor. Standing in a patch of light, was their fourth shinobi. He was an average looking man; it didn't surprise Raven that he managed to sneak in and out of the Hokage tower without being noticed. He was completely easy to overlook. The only really defining characteristic he possessed was an ugly scar running down his cheek and through his lips that looked like it had come from a kunai slash. He was definitely a Jonin; his standard issue dark flak jacket and gleaming forehead protector were dead give aways, but so was his confident and calm demeanor; his chunnin squad had definitely been lacking those characteristics.

"You are under arrest for the crime of espionage and theft of village secrets. Do not resist." Weasel told him calmly.

A dark chuckle poured from his throat as his lips split in a smirk. His scar twisted with the movement in a way that made him look sinister. He slowly reached a hand up to unzip his flak jacket.

"Did you really think I'd let you take me in?" He asked as he pulled his jacket open. It was lined in exploding tags. "Did you really—"

A kunai hit him dead in the throat before he could finish or detonate himself. He toppled backwards off his branch, landing in a heap on the dirt below. Raven glanced at her captain as she put her unused kunai back into her pouch. His chakra had not fluctuated once the entire mission; she'd known very few people who could manage to keep themselves that calm and collected through a mission. Even she had grown slightly nervous when the man opened his jacket.

"Dog and Monkey have finished and are coming to back us up." She informed him quietly as she felt their chakra signatures approaching.

"Are there any more enemies in the area?" He asked quietly.

"No. I haven't sensed any other chakra signatures besides the four and ours." She told him.

"Good. Let's finish and get back to the village." Weasel commanded with authority.

Z

"I was not expecting this mission to go as smoothly as it did." Monkey confessed as he took a seat on the bench of the locker room in ANBU headquarters. "New teams usually take some time to get used to each other."

"This was a simple mission." Weasel reminded as he began to write the preliminary report. The Hokage was in a meeting with his advisors and would not be able to hear the report for at least another hour.

"This team is a better matchup than some of the ones I have been assigned to." Dog put in.

"Also true." Monkey agreed.

Raven watched their easy conversation in silence. She was a refugee from a village that was destroyed in a conflict. It had been years since she had had a close relationship with a team. There had been no point; because she was a sensor, she was moved where ever she was needed, and that meant she didn't have time to get used to the people that surrounded her. It was also rather frowned upon for shibobi to have close relationships with team members in her village; their leader believed that it weakened them. After being raised with this mentality, it was strange to her to see two shinobi interact so freely.

She almost sighed in exhaustion as she watched the first weak rays of the winter sun start lightening the high windows of the locker room. She suddenly felt oppressively uncomfortable with her new team. She didn't have a choice but to tolerate them; the village elders had given her sanctuary in exchange for her working as a sensor for them. They had only just begun to trust her, and she couldn't ruin that now.

"The Hokage's done early." She informed her team quietly as she felt the elderly man's chakra moving from his office, approaching their locker room.

"After the meeting everyone is free to go. We will meet for night training at midnight on Wednesday. Same place as last time." Weasel informed them. Raven watched as Dog and Monkey nodded wordlessly in agreement.

Weasel must be some kind of ninja, she mused, if two arrogant, veteran ANBU would listen so well to someone so much younger without question.

Deep down, a curiosity stirred and she found herself wanting to know more about the prodigy behind the Weasel mask.

**AN: Don't usually write fanfics for Naruto. Second chapter picks up more background and character interaction. **

**Reviews are appreciated. I really struggle with characterization sometimes, and it really helps if people tell me if I'm getting OOC.**


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